Leaves shook as a parrot soared through them, landing on a thin branch which bent under its weight. The bird stopped to preen the feathers under its wing, then looked up, cocking its head at the sound of other birds rising through the wind in the trees.

A stronger wind broke through the jungle, shaking branches wildly, including the one the parrot sat on. The bird squawked and flew up to a stronger branch, turning its head with twitchy movements to scan the jungle. It rustled its wings uneasily, preparing to take off at the first sign of the danger it felt.

A sudden flash some ten meters away lit up the trees in a blinding light. The parrot shrieked in alarm, birds typically being unaccustomed to magic, and flew off, not sticking around to see two men stood where the flash had been.

One wore crimson armor, resembling something out of a video game, and a dark grey helmet which covered his face. He turned his head, judging his surroundings before looking to the shorter man beside him. This man's casual wear was in stark contrast to his companion, with jeans and a red hoodie which had been pulled over his messy blonde hair.

"I'm finally back," the armored man said quietly. "It's been... so long." He took his helmet off, closing his eyes as he lifted his head to the breeze that made its way through the trees. The blonde man looked up at him curiously, watching him for a long time as he stood there. The man sighed, opening his eyes again. "Yeah... I missed the wind. What do you think, Xelqua?"

The shorter man looked out into the jungle, but didn't respond.

Ignoring his companion's silence, the armored man watched the patterns of sunlight cast on the ground through the foliage. "You know, it's almost a shame, really. I could grow to like a world like this."

"Are you sure this is even the right world?" the blonde man asked skeptically.

"Of course it is, when have I ever been wrong?"

He raised an eyebrow, looking up for a moment. "Do you want me to make you a list or something?"

The armored man rolled his eyes. "Shut up. It's a nice day, and we're finally here. Right then..." He put his helmet back on, turned and nudged his companion's shoulder. "Let's go get the others."

<~~~>

As far as Grian was concerned, it was a perfect day. The sun was warm against his back and a steady breeze kept the heat from becoming too much. All day he could hear birdsong from the nearby jungle as he worked.

On top of the weather, it had been a productive day. Grian sat in the branches of a tree, admiring his work from a distance. He had spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon finishing the back of his mansion. Well, the back wall at least. There was still the terrain which, for now, was floating impossibly with basically nothing beneath it, but filling in the hillside could wait for later. He honestly didn't even want to think about terraforming, right now.

The wall itself wasn't exactly a feat of architecture; it didn't have to be, since this side of his base would barely ever be seen. It was just simple stone and terracotta, not one eye-catching detail, and overall just melding in with the sides of the mansion. But it was huge, and there had been nothing but a large hole there for months now. And even if the weather making its way inside all the time hadn't been getting on his nerves, the result that the back of his base(or lack thereof) becoming a sort of joke among the other hermits had.

"Well, we'll see who's laughing now, won't we?" he thought out loud, standing up on the branch and balancing himself against the tree. He flexed his shoulders and made sure his elytra was properly secured before he jumped out of the tree, the synthetic, purplish wings fanning out behind him and catching the air. He glided out to the jungle, staying so close to the treetops, he could have reached down and taken a handful of leaves if he had felt inclined. But instead he kept his eyes on the structures that rose out of the trees, other hermit's bases. He wanted to find someone to brag to about his accomplishment. After all, he was proud of himself, and saw no reason why he shouldn't be.

But a quick circle around the jungle left Grian empty-handed. Scar was off-world, Stress was nowhere to be found in her base, and Mumbo's base(which was just eight oddly shaped pillars at the moment, surrounding a clearing with an underground entrance) was similarly empty. Though, while there, Grian did guide half a dozen chickens down the hatch, for old time's sake.

After that, he took to the sky again, thinking as the greenery rushed below him. Mumbo was probably in the Shopping District, working on his new shop. He could head over there, and as long as he didn't break any of the redstone, he-

Grian stopped mid-thought. Something was moving in a clearing beneath him. From this height, and from how fast he passed it, he couldn't make out any details, but it was almost definitely a person. Grian turned back and circled the spot a few times, feeling very much like a bird, in doing so, before dive bombing toward whoever it was.

He hit the ground at an angle, heels digging into the dirt as he skidded to a swaying halt barely a meter in front of his unsuspecting victim, who darted back a pace.

"Hey, X-eye-zoooooma!" Grian grinned, sweeping his blond hair away from his face. He'd recognize that style of armor anywhere. "A bit far from your jungle, huh?"

Xisuma was still for a moment, seemingly taken aback by Grian's sudden arrival and greeting. That, or he had forgotten there were two jungles on the server. Or both. "Oh, I uh... guess I am?"

"It's not like you to get turned around so easily," Grian teased. "Speaking of turned around, what's with the new colors?" He indicated Xisuma's armor, which was usually green, but was now a dark red that stood out sharply against the trees.

The admin shrugged, his expression, as usual, hidden by his helmet visor.

"Just thought it was time for a change."

Grian frowned thoughtfully. "Do you have a cold or something?" Something was off, but Grian wasn't sure what. Xisuma was usually more talkative than this, and his voice wasn't quite right...

"I'm fine." Xisuma waved a hand dismissively.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Xisuma didn't respond to this, and he really seemed like he'd rather this conversation end quickly. But an idea was already forming in Grian's head as he noticed how warm it was down below the trees. The breeze didn't seem to reach down here like it did in the sky, and the foliage seemed to hold some of the heat in. "You're probably dehydrated. It's pretty hot today. Have you been drinking water?" He took a step toward Xisuma who stepped back in return.

"I told you, I'm fine. Back off."

That caught Grian's attention. That sort of abrasiveness wasn't like Xisuma, at all.

"I just want to help. That stuffy armor probably isn't doing you any good." Grian reached up to take Xisuma's helmet off, but the admin shoved him in the chest, a purple flash emanating from his hands, sending Grian flying off his feet, and landing several meters back into a bush.

He winced as he sat up. Thin branches scratched at his skin, and his shoulder throbbed from where it had hit the ground. He rose to his feet, grumbling under his breath, and looked around, but Xisuma was gone.

<~~~>

The flight to the Shopping District wasn't long, but it was quiet, and Grian spent most of that time trying to shake away the troubles in his mind. It helped when he reached the coast of the island, flying above the border between the land and the sea that pushed against it.

He soon spotted the dark blue shop, hidden against the water which was a similar hue(though more grayish due to the darkening sky), with large yellow lettering that spelled out "ODEA" along the side. Though he was still some distance away, Grian heard the snap of rockets and saw someone flying away into the sky, which had filled with gray clouds during his flight to the island.

Grian landed smoothly on the ground, the soft mycelium that covered the dirt taking most of the shock from the impact, and looked around at the outside of the shop. He couldn't hear any signs of movement over the crashing waves, and there wasn't a single person in sight. Grian's shoulders sank as he wondered if that had been Mumbo he just saw leave. Normally he would have enjoyed chasing down one of his friends, but today he didn't have the energy to.

The sound of whistling lifted his spirits, as did the door being kicked open by someone who was carrying shulker boxes stacked higher than their head.

Suppressing his laughter, Grian let Mumbo walk past him, completely unawares, and drop the shulker boxes on the ground with a sigh. Mumbo rolled up his sleeves, staining them with the redstone dust on his hands, and knelt down to sort through the boxes.

Grian waited behind him, occasionally getting a step or two closer, until he was leaning over the man's shoulder, watching him pull out various redstone components and set them aside.

"And knife to the back, you're dead," Grian whispered right next to Mumbo's ear.

Mumbo just about screamed and fell forward on top of the shulker. Grian fell backwards, clutching his stomach with uncontrollable laughter.

"Grian!" Mumbo shrieked, turning to face him with wide-eyed accusation. "You can't do that to me, mate!"

"I'm- sorry," Grian giggled, wiping away tears. "But that was- Man, I wish I got that on camera!"

Mumbo sighed and dragged his hand down his face. Grian doubled over laughing again at the smear of red dust across his cheeks and mustache.

"We need to put a bell on you."

"Scar's already tried that," Grian said brightly from where he now sat on the ground. "I put it on a mouse in his base, and it's been driving him crazy for weeks."

"Now he'll never get any of his mayoral duties done," Mumbo gasped, putting a hand to his forehead dramatically. "I might have to talk to Xisuma about forcing him to resign."

Grian's smile faltered but he shook his annoyance away. "Maybe with the power vacuum we can get you in his place." He pushed himself to his feet and grimaced, shaking the slimy mycelium from his hands. "Your first act can be getting rid of this gross stuff."

"I thought you loved mycelium?" Mumbo laughed.

Grian frowned in confusion. "What? No, it's disgusting."

"But didn't you start a whole..." Mumbo looked around in an exaggerated manner before leaning closer with his hand next to his mouth. "...resistance surrounding it?"

Grian blinked, staring off into the distance. "...oh, I did do that. Why did I do that? Ew."

Mumbo laughed, slapping him on the shoulder. "Oh, something must be wrong with you, my friend." Grian shrugged away, trying to keep up his smile. "By the way, did you need something? Or did you just come here to mess around?"

"Uhm..." Grian trailed off, staring at the ground. "I thought there was a reason," he muttered, half to himself. "I don't really remember."

Mumbo watched him curiously for a few seconds, and when Grian didn't look up or say anything more, asked: "Are you... doing alright?"

"What? Yeah, w- why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know," Mumbo said plainly. "But you seem put off by something. At the very least, absent minded." Grian looked at his friend, but didn't meet his eyes. "Would it help to talk about it?"

Grian shrugged again. "I don't know... I just- I saw X earlier, and he was acting really weird. I guess that threw me off."

Mumbo sat down on one of the shulker boxes and gestured for Grian to do the same. "Weird how?" he asked once his friend was settled.

Grian started to shrug, realized he was doing that way too much, and stopped mid-action. "He was just... defensive, like he didn't even know me. I thought he might be overheating or something, so I tried to take his helmet off him, but he shoved me to the ground and ran off."

Mumbo frowned. "That's... not like him."

"I know!"

"He seemed fine when I saw him. You just missed him actually, he was here a few minutes ago."

"Must've gotten here pretty fast, then," Grian grumbled. "I only saw him like twenty minutes ago."

Mumbo's eyes widened. "Twenty minutes? Are you sure?"

"Well, I'm not positive. Obviously I could be a bit off, but-"

Mumbo cut him off. "Xisuma's been in the Shopping District for the past hour."

"...what?"

"I saw him," Mumbo continued. "He was looking around the whole island. Then he came over here and asked if I'd seen anything strange. He left right before you got here."

Grian ran his hands through his hair in disbelief. "But- that doesn't make any sense, it..." He stopped, looking up to meet Mumbo's eyes. "I swear I'm not making this up!"

Mumbo raised his hands in a placating gesture. "I believe you. I just don't understand what's going on."

"I mean, sure he's an admin and he has magic and all, but even then, he can't be in two places at once. It's impossible!" His voice rose in pitch and volume with each word.

"It is impossible..." Mumbo muttered. He tugged at his collar in discomfort. "Unless... No. Nevermind."

Before Grian could ask Mumbo what he had been going to say, both of their communicators emitted a loud, piercing chirp. Completely different from the buzzing noise which indicated a normal chat message. Grian flinched at the sound.

"That didn't sound good," Mumbo said, and Grian nodded. That noise meant something major had happened; a change to the world or a permadeath.

He prayed it wasn't the second one.

Seeing that Grian wasn't making any move to retrieve his communicator, Mumbo took his out of his pocket, staring at the screen for a few seconds.

"Interworld connection disabled," he read. "What does that mean?"

"I think it means Hermitcraft is cut off from the World Hub," Grian said quietly. "No one can get in... or out."

There was a long silence, broken by another chirp, which caused Grian to flinch again. He really hated that sound.

Mumbo looked at the device and sucked in a breath.

"...What does it say?" Grian asked, not sure he wanted to know.

Mumbo said nothing for a long time, the silence weighing down like heavy rainfall. When he responded, it was with a shaking voice.

"Hermitcraft server set to hardcore."

"What?" Grian blurted out. He leaned over to see the screen and, sure enough, there it was. "No no no. This isn't happening, is it?" His heart hammered in his chest and he looked up frantically.

Mumbo didn't seem to hear him, staring at the screen and shaking his head in disbelief.

Several other messages popped up, each accompanied by a sharp buzz.

<FalseSymmetry> WHAT

<Tango> !!

<Welsknight> is this a prank??

<Xisuma> oh no

<Welsknight> X what's happening?

<Xisuma> emergency server meeting. Town hall in the Shopping District. ASAP

<Xisuma> and PLEASE be careful in getting there